An alarming atrocity

When news came from Kenya on Tuesday that all the hostages seized by terrorists in a shopping mall in Nairobi were rescued, global concerns about the fate of those innocent lives were relieved.

However, many questions remain to be answered, and what has been revealed so far about the atrocity that left at least 62 dead, including one Chinese national, and more than 170 injured, is both alarming and worrying. The attack was well-planned and well-organized, and the terrorists were heavily armed and cold-blooded. Kenyan government sources have also said the terrorists were of various nationalities, including two or three Americans and a British woman.

The international community has united to condemn the atrocity in the strongest terms, and the Kenyan government has the whole world behind it as it sets out to round up the perpetrators, who are believed to be members of al-Shabab, a Somali-based extremist group.